Dimuha was not having a good time. Frankly speaking, there are few people in the world in his position that would have a good time. Being suppressed by a squad of highly trained and well-equipped mercs is not everyone's preferred way to spend a day. Still, it could've been worse. Sanyok had managed to lay down a smoke grenade mere seconds after Griffin's men had revealed themselves, and it had bought the two Redeemed crucial moments to take cover. Hiding behind the hospital's tunnel running between its two wings, Dimuha was desperately racking his brain on how to get out of this predicament.

"Dimuha! The door on the right! Follow me!", Sanyok shouted and sprayed his entire magazine towards the mercs, making them kneel down momentarily.

"Chyort, just when I was getting comfortable.", Dimuha grumbled and flung himself upwards.

They had few seconds of grace period before a swarm of lead peppered the yard once more. Dimuha took a hit to his shoulder, the fitted armour plate on it denting after a hit. His helmet was struck by one too, sending his head to the side from the blow. Had Dimuha's tongue been between his teeth, it would have been bitten through. Dimuha staggered onwards, trying to find his footing among the pulsating pain overcoming his senses. Sanyok's hand reached out and pulled him inside just as a bullet struck the wall behind them.

"Suka blyat, this is worse than the time I drank from Tooth's faulty batch of moonshine.", Dimuha managed to stutter.

"Watch out!", Sanyok shouted, and the world turned white.

Stunned, Dimuha tried to make sense of what just happened. He could not see, his retinas had been burned by incredible light. His eyes rang, and someone struck him with a rifle butt. Dimuha found himself laying on the floor half a minute later, his blurry vision focusing on some black shadows towering over him. Slowly, the field of view became sharper, and the Redemption leader realized that he was staring down a pistol barrel held by a mercenary. Griffin entered the room, his face taken over by the most impressive shit-eating grin Dimuha had ever seen.

"You two really thought we'd leave an escape route open like that? I know you're bit special but I didn't expect this level of ineptitude.", Griffin commented.

"Here's the artifact, boss.", one of the mercs said, tossing the Tears of Chimera to Griffin.

"Why are you working with UNISG, Griffin? The mercs have no relations to them outside of intel gathering.", Sanyok asked hoarsely.

"Simple. Dushman would have probably cut my contact anyway, even if Boris delivered those docs. We happened to be in town when UNISG and their pals arrived, so we helped them. Vulture and his men rubbed our backs, we rubbed theirs and an alliance was formed. You think we would have survived months here buying scraps from the local stalkers or through Meeker's connections? Hell no. UNISG supplied us the gear and means to survive, we got rid of anyone snooping on them. Like now.", Griffin said, pointing at the grim mercenary trader next to him.

Sounds of distant gunfire echoed into the building, and the mercs momentarily looked towards it. Griffin ordered two men to take spotting positions outside, leaving him in the room with three other of his men, Meeker and two mercenaries in Twilight suits, M40 gasmasks and LR-300 rifles. Griffin then turned his attention back to the two Redeemed, disarmed and disoriented on the floor.

"Garik, Senya, dispose of them.", Griffin ordered, and two LR-300s rose to attention as Dimuha stared defiantly at Griffin.

Gunshots echoed in the small space, and Dimuha saw the two mercs collapse down. Griffin turned to see the gunner, and was immediately cut down by Meeker, his gun claiming the mercenary leader's life. In few brutal seconds, the soldiers of fortune had perished. Meeker did not wait for the bodies to fall to the ground to step out of the door and shoot the two guards in the backs. Dimuha was still struggling to understand what was going on, when Sanyok handed him back his gun. Meeker entered the building once more, greeted by the guns of the two stalkers.

"Lower them. Had I wanted to, you'd be dead already.", Meeker said.

"Why did you help us then? This all seems very fishy.", Sanyok asked, looking at the dead guns for hire on the floor, and Meeker pulled a patch out of his pocket.

"This here. I'm a Noon sleeper agent. I left Strider's group to join the mercs, but eventually came to regret leaving the only people who could relate to my experiences behind. I contacted Strider and he asked me to keep an eye on the mercenaries, as he never really trusted them. When UNISG wiped out many of my comrades in Jupiter, and then allied the mercs here, I almost deserted.", Meeker explained, showing the red sun patch of Noon.

"Yet you remained. Why?", Dimuha questioned.

"I figured that I could do more harm to UNISG from here. And I was right. That artifact you got? It's for UNISG's ally, the men in black armour. That's all I know, but it seems like it was of great importance.", Meeker replied.

"But do you not regret killing your squadmates? After all, you spent ages with them.", Dimuha continued his queries.

"Mercenaries aren't the most tight-knit bunch, and the time we spent here... It was not great for their mental health. Even in Dead City you're always on the lookout for a rival or even trusted friend turning on you for a bigger slice of the rewards, but here? We lost three men simply because of treachery and backstabbing, yet Griffin did nothing. I have no regrets, for there is nothing worth to regret for.", Meeker sighed.

Dimuha nodded. His days as a bandit had been much the same, save for Boris and Vityukha having his back. Sometimes he, too, had had the urge to lay into his various squadmates after a particularly nasty skirmish with stalkers or military, but not so much out of greed, more out of hatred for said individuals. Sanyok muttered something in response too, but was cut off by the sound of gunfire returning. The trio looked at each other, and in a silent agreement, they confirmed mutual trust and stepped outside, guns ready. The source of the fire soon became apparent, as muzzle flashes illuminated the statue near Prometheus movie theatre. A single man in Sunrise suit was opening up on a literal horde of zombies, their pale, sickly skin at times bursting open as bullets struck them. Yet on they marched, as even in death they served the Zone.

Not knowing who the stalker was, the three survivors of the hospital battle nonetheless rushed to help him. Sanyok made it there first, crouching next to the giant statue by the side of the theatre, couple metres from the stalker. His rifle homed in on the husks, and soon a fearsome harvest of blood began. Dimuha's machine gun joined in, firing in short bursts to conserve ammunition, while Meeker's Tiss rifle picked off some of the more nimble and swift, almost completely decayed, zombies. Dimuha felt nauseated just looking at the things, their skin brown and eye sockets empty, their limbs almost down to the bone. Whatever propelled these monsters forward, it was most certainly an aberration of nature. One Dimuha was more than happy to remove. He saw the lone stalker turn towards his saviours, and the man's face melted into a recognizing smile.

"Dimuha! Sanyok! Am I glad to see you two! These folks do not understand the meaning of personal space!", Stitch, Strelok's medic, shouted in a rather jovial manner, considering the circumstances.

"One of these days you, Rogue and Strelok must save our asses in return, this is getting ridiculous!", Dimuha quipped back, his Mk. 48 blazing away at the incoming wall of humans well past their best before date.

"We're doing this so you guys get to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, it's hard work being this altruistic!", Stitch replied and fell back as three of the faster zombies got too close.

Meeker's Tiss claimed the vanguard with three sharp bangs, and the quick runners of the pack fell down. Sanyok had not been idle, drawing out the grenade he had looted from one of the dead mercs earlier. He tossed it like an experienced baseball player. It landed squarely on the jaw of one of the brainscorched humans before tumbling down. An explosion of blinding heat and flames emerged from the small object, engulfing the group of zombies in its lethal embrace. Many screamed in pain and terror, to Dimuha's discomfort, as for a fraction of second their voices regained some semblance of humanity. Yet this was simply a facade, and Dimuha kept firing. These lost souls would find no way out of their situation in this world, and while Dimuha was not particularly religious, he hoped they would do so in the afterlife.

Most of the pack had been decimated by the thermal explosive, and those few that survived soon met their ends by the bullets of the stalkers. As the last one fell down, Dimuha let out a sigh of relief. Zombies, and their more adept Zombified stalker brethren, were not particularly tough to fight, but seeing these things was not good for one's mental health. It reminded any stalker that death was not the only route to hell, and that sometimes leaving a single bullet for oneself in the magazine was not a sign of fanaticism but of self-preservation. When the last corpse had stopped twitching, Dimuha lowered his machine gun barrel, now steaming hot. The others did the same, and only the sound of simmering flesh and dripping blood remained.

"Uh, quick question, why is Griffin's trader here with you two?", Stitch asked, pointing at the dour man in stock standard Merc suit.

"Uh, long story-", Sanyok began, when Meeker interrupted him.

"I work for Noon, being Griffin's trader was merely a cover. He showed his true colours and tried to kill these two for a single artifact, so I acted."

"So that's where those shots came. I thought it was because of the black heli, but no. Anyway, glad to have you on our side, drug.", Stitch said while patting the quite ankward looking Meeker at his shoulder.

"Black heli? Care to elaborate? And what happened to you finding this group of husks", it was Dimuha's turn to ask questions.

"One passed by here as I was escaping the horde. I think there was one zombie at the hospital that had some sort of psi-field, scrambled my brain and Rogue's. We tried to get out, but ran into some merc-looking fellas, who attacked us and the zombie. Lost sight of Rogue, I think he was having far worse trouble keeping his head in order. Anyway, shootout ended when the zombies turned their attention towards the merc guys, but I ran out and right into the arms of these average citizens of Omsk by the looks.", Stitch explained.

"And the heli? You're rambling, Stitch.", Sanyok said.

"Oh, sorry. One learns to be quite talkative when surrounded by Mr. Grumpy Rogue and Strelok, who seems to have one word a day limit in his brain. I don't know much about the helicopter, it flew over here and landed on that building there. Pitch black, no tridents or blue-yellows on the sides which was pretty odd... Hey, what the hell?", Stitch pointed towards the block nearby, but there was no chopper on it.

"Strange. Could've sworn it was there just a moment ago.", Stitch continued, scratching his jaw.

"Psi-phenomena still scrambling your brain then? Tell me about it.", Meeker said, and the both Sanyok and Dimuha laughed.

"What do you-... Ah, I get it. You still have dreams about the Monolith or something?", Stitch asked, remembering the mention of Noon.

"No, thankfully. It's complicated, and not a matter I wish to disclose. Just know I will not turn into mindless robot-like warrior any time soon.", Meeker reassured the others, and Stitch nodded.

"Helicopters or not, we need to return to base. Those merc people you saw, Stitch? We got new kids on the block, and this time they're even bigger nuisance than Sin.", Dimuha said.

"I knew it. Whenever Redemption shows up, something is in need of fast un-fucking. Alright, hit me with the facts, I'll get some morphine ready just in case...", Stitch ordered.